Professional Documents
Culture Documents
→ ‘Cereals’ is a collective term for all kinds of grass-like plants, which have starchy, edible
seeds.
Rice
1) Name the most common cereal in India. What is the most eaten staple food crop in India?
→ The largest rice producing country is China and the second-largest rice-producing country is
India.
→ The two categories of rice are Upland Rice and Lowland Rice.
→ The stagnant water in the fields protects the plants from pests which cannot survive under
water.
BROADCASTING DRIBBLING
Broadcasting is the scattering of seeds by hand Dribbling is the dropping of seeds at regular
over the soil. intervals in the furrows made by the plough.
8) Why seeds are soaked upto 24 hours before being sown in the field?
→ The seeds are soaked upto 24 hours before being sown in the field to speed up germination
in soil that is not sufficiently moist.
→ Impervious subsoil permits stagnation of water in the fields during the period of cultivation.
i) It increases yields by 45 per cent, facilitates harvesting with scythes and used water
economically.
ii) It uses water economically.
c) What are the advantages of growing rice in nurseries?
→ Harvesting is done by hand using a sickle and the cut crop is then allowed to dry in the field
for 3 to 4 days. Threshing is done by bullocks to separate the grain from the chaff. In some rural
areas the sheaves are beaten against the bars across rounded wooden tubs so that the grain
falls into the tub. Hand pounding preserves nutrients. It is done in a wooden mortar pounded
by a long wooden pestle. Polishing of rice is done to make it more attractive and preserve it.
However, it loses much of its nutritive value when polished. It is done in rice mills where it
passes between varying sets of hullers and rollers.
→ Two rice producing states in India are Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.
Wheat
1) Name the second most important food crop in our country.
i. Temperature: 10°C to 15°C but not mor4e than 20°C to 25°C when ripening.
ii. Rainfall: 50 to 100 c. Wheat can be grown in drier regions if irrigation is available.
iii. Soil: Soil must be clayey, loamy or black soil, well drained, textured with a small lime
content. The soil should contain much decayed organic plant and animanl matter to
provide food for the wheat plant.
→ Wheat is a rabi crop grown mainly during winter. In northern India, wheat is generally sown
in October-November and harvested in March.
5) Name the two varieties of wheat. Which varieties of wheat are cultivated in India?
Spring wheat (soft variety) and macaroni (harder variety) are cultivated in India.
6) What is macaroni? Where is it cultivated?
→ The harder variety or ‘macaroni’ wheat is grown on south Indian black, clayey soil where no
irrigation facilities are available. Such areas include Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh,
Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, etc.
→ Ploughing breaks up the soil surface and allows moisture to soak into the soil as also pulls
weeds and the remains of the previous crop.
→ The winter rain due to western disturbances in Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh
is beneficial to the wheat crop as it speeds germination.
→ The winter rain due to western disturbances in Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Praesh is
beneficial to wheat crop as it speeds germination.
11) Give two natural and one man-made factor that favours the cultivation of wheat.
→ Natural factors: i) Winter rainfall in Punjab and western Uttar Pradesh is beneficial to early
germination.
ii)
Artificial factors: i) Wheat farmers prepare fields for the next crop as soon as possible after
harvest.
12) Give two aspects of the ‘Green Revolution’. What helps in the increase yield of wheat?
→ During the first Green Revolution of 1967-68, the introduction of high-yielding Mexican
wheat and hybrids had led to the maximum yield in less acreage, especially in Punjab where
each spikelet may have 25 to 200 grains of wheat within.
The introduction of high-yielding Mexican wheat and hybrids had led to the maximum
yield in less acreage, especially in Punjab where each spikelet may have 25 to 200 grains of
wheat within.
13) Why is wheat not grown in the eastern and in the extreme southern part of India?
15) Why is the area under the cultivation of wheat on the increase?
16) In what important respects do the climatic conditions for wheat differ from those of rice?
RICE WHEAT
It requires an mean annual temperature of 10°C to 15°C but not more than 20°C to 25°c
24°C with a range of 22°C to 32°C. when ripening.
17) Why research is being done to evolve rust and smut? OR Which virulent fungi disease
affects wheat?
→ Research is being done to evolve rust and smut resistant as virulent fungi diseases affect the
production of wheat.
Millets
1) What are millets?
→ In undeveloped countries, millets provide nutritive food for the teeming poor, while in
developed countries they are fodder crops.
→ Millets are referred to as ‘dry crops’ as they are hardy, drought and heat-resistant and
therefore cultivated in the drier parts of the monsoon lands, particularly the Deccan Plateau,
mainly for local consumption.
→ Millets are referred to as food grains of the poor because millets provide nutritive food for
the teeming poor.
Pulses
1) Name one crop which is kharif in North India and rabi in South India.
→ Pulses are cultivated as kharif crops in North India and rabi crops in South India
→ Pulses are very nutritive, being rich in proteins which are essential in a vegetarian diet.
→ Pulses include peas, beans, lentil, foodgrains such as gram (channa) which is most important
and dals, such as moong, masur, tur and urad.